It has now been more than four weeks since the last boatload of asylum seekers was transferred to Australian immigration authorities.

It has been more than five years since there were no boat arrivals for the corresponding period, Mr Morrison said. During the same period last year more than 400 people arrived by boat and in the two previous years there were more than 250 boat arrivals during the corresponding period.

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Mr Morrison said he would not be deterred by the day's embarrassing events. Nor would he be swayed by the Indonesian government's persistent and vocal rejection of Australia's policy of turning back asylum boats.

“I want to assure the Australian people that despite the unintentional entry of Australian border protection assets into Indonesian territorial waters, our operations that are stopping the boats will continue,” Mr Morrison said in a statement.

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In his weekly Operation Sovereign Borders press release – Mr Morrison has cancelled his Friday media conferences – the Immigration Minister boasted of several arrests of people smugglers, due to Australia's cooperation with foreign governments.

Vietnamese National Police have arrested a “Vietnamese national” in Southern Vietnam for alleged involvement in “several people smuggling ventures”.

Sri Lankan authorities have recently arrested three people in Sri Lanka for “alleged facilitator involvement in people smuggling activity”.

Mr Morrison also released figures to show how many asylum seekers are being held in Australia's detention centres.

There are 1987 asylum seekers in the Christmas Island detention centre, where there has been reports of detainees harming themselves, sewing their lips and eyelids together, to protest their treatment by the Australian government.

General Angus Campbell, who heads the Abbott government's military operation to stop asylum seeker boats, told a press conference on Wednesday that he was "encouraged" by the drop in boats, but was reluctant to declare the policy a success.

"It will only be after the monsoon season ends, around late March, that I will be able to be in a position to confidently offer an assessment of how the operation is going," General Campbell said.

"Historically, the rate of boat arrivals has risen after the monsoon to what could be described as the business-as-usual level for people smugglers.